Lincoln City Council to vote on $500k in road resurfacing, Depot oversight

Thursday

Sep 28, 2017 at 7:23 PMSep 28, 2017 at 7:23 PM

By Jessica LemaThe Courier

Road resurfacing contract

Lincoln City Council will likely vote Monday on the approval up to $500,000 in road resurfacing work in the areas surrounding the Lincoln Depot.

United Contractors Midwest, of Springfield, was the low bidder for the city’s 2017 Road Resurfacing Project with a bid of $331,456.02 for upgrades to several roads recommended by engineers from Farnsworth Group, Inc.

The contract up for a vote next week calls for roadways to be resurfaced with a hot-mix asphalt overlay.

Streets & Alleys Superintendent Walt Landers told the Council Tuesday night that bids came in significantly under budget allowing for the addition of other roadways that are yet to be decided upon.

Landers said that the city’s roadway database and modeling system known as PAVER, which was purchased for $44,518 from Farnsworth Group in February, was not used in the selection of streets slated for resurfacing this year. Landers said he expects to use the program for the selection of roads in the 2018 resurfacing project.

Roadways currently slated for improvements are as follows:

-Sangamon Street from Clinton to Pulaski Streets

-Sangamon Street from Pulaski to Broadway Streets

-Sangamon Street from Broad way to Pekin Streets

-Pekin Street from Logan to Sangamon Streets

-Pekin Street from Chicago to Kickapoo Streets

-Pekin Street from Kickapoo to McLean Streets

-Chicago Street from Broadway to Pekin Streets

-McLean Street from Broadway to Pekin Streets

-Tremont Street from Logan to Sangamon Streets

-Tremont Street from Sangamon to Chicago Streets

Raises for city employees

Interim City Administrator Bob Mahrt has recommended a 2.5 percent “cost of living” pay increase for all for all full-time, non-contractual, exempt employees, as well as all part-time hourly employees hired after April 30 of this year. If approved on Monday, the raises will be retroactive to May 1, 2017.

Prairie Engineers Depot contract extension

Lincoln City Council will likely vote Monday on an $18,580 extension of a contract with Prairie Engineers for construction oversight at the Lincoln Depot.

In September of 2016, the Lincoln-based firm was hired to oversee construction of the city's new Amtrak station at a cost of $117,280 for 1,000 man-hours of work in addition to the review of pay applications and their attendance at Depot progress meetings. At the time, the project was expected to take an estimated 300 days to complete and the firm was to spend 20-25 hours each week monitoring its progress.

The Depot was originally slated for completion by March 31 of this year, but that date was later pushed back to June 30. After the revised date of completion came and went, the contractor estimated that the project would be finished by November. Prairie Engineers notified the city in mid-September that they were approaching the 1,000 man-hours included in their contract and the firm has since exceeded that limit.

Lincoln's Interim City Administrator, Bob Mahrt told the council Tuesday night that $150,000 was budgeted into the project for construction observation and that $32,720 remains in that line item. "Because the project has continued several months over the anticipated timeframe, we're needing that additional money to move forward," Mahrt said, adding that the expense would be covered by reimbursements from IDOT since it was included in the original project budget.

Lincoln City Council also will have the following items up for a vote on Monday:

-Approval of the 2017 Trick-or-Treat hours from 5-8 p.m. Oct. 31

- A request to permit the Lincoln Logan County Chamber of Commerce to host the Annual Lincoln Christmas Parade from 6 p.m. through the end of the parade on Dec. 7 in downtown Lincoln.

-Approval of a supplemental appropriation ordinance ($3,400 toward the new police station in the capital projects fund and $1,212,500 toward fire truck loan payments in the equipment fund)

Confidential paper shredding

The Mayor announced Tuesday night that the State Bank of Lincoln and the Logan County Joint Solid Waste Agency will host a confidential paper shredding event from 9 a.m.- 12 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Logan County Fairgrounds. The event is free and open to the public. Visitors are asked to use the main gate entrance to the fairgrounds and to limit their drop-offs to five bags or boxes of paper per person.

Saturday water shut offs downtown

Streets & Alleys Superintendent Walt Landers said Tuesday that several downtown blocks would be without water service from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. During those hours, Illinois American Water will be working on infrastructure in the 100 block of South Kickapoo Street, the 100 block of North Chicago Street and the 400 and 500 blocks of Broadway Street.

Leaf burning hours

Fire Chief Mark Miller reminded the public Tuesday that fallen leaves may be burned on private property until 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays throughout the month of October.